Clinic to Community© Program for Adults With Epilepsy Admitted to Emergency Departments: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Emergency care for epilepsy can be appropriate and even life-saving, but up to 37% of emergency department (ED) visits by persons with epilepsy (PWE) are potentially deferrable, resulting from persons with known epilepsy and uncomplicated seizures. Past studies have shown that low self-management confidence among PWE leads to frequent emergency visits to the hospital. Other factors associated with increased use of EDs are increased seizure frequency, reduced medication, sub-optimal self-management, increased anxiety, increased depression, increased felt-stigma, and lower social and medical epilepsy knowledge.

In one catchment area in Ontario, Canada, the Southwest Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), there are an estimated 7508 prevalent cases of epilepsy associated with the use of approximately $55 million/year of provincial healthcare services. In addition, there are an estimated 433 incident cases costing an additional $4.6 million/year. Hospital care (including ED visits) accounts for 35.5% of the total cost equating to $21 million/year. Eliminating the 37% of deferrable ED visits equates to saving almost $8 million/year.

The Clinic to Community© (C2C) epilepsy education program has been developed using best practices for patient education. The content has been divided into an introductory 60 minute face-to-face session supported by strategy sheets that can be accessed online at www.clinictocommunity.ca

The Clinic To Community© program recognizes that epilepsy is unique among chronic conditions in that PWE lose their ability to make choices during a seizure and depend on the decisions of others including family, friends and colleagues to keep them safe. Many patients seek care in the ED to reduce their anxiety and for reassurance and that upon discharge from the ED, the inability to receive a prompt specialist appointment leads to the continued use of ED for these same patients.

This is a parallel, pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the Clinic To Community© program plus treatment-as-usual (TAU) with TAU only (i.e. wait-list control). This study will not interfere with patients' clinical care. Eligible patients visiting a participating ED will be given information about the study and if they agree, will be referred. The C2C program will be delivered in-person, one-on-one for 60 minutes by appointment on a rolling basis to minimize wait-times and allow timely access to the intervention.